Amazon warehouse workers at the LDJ5 facility in Staten Island have decided not to unionize following a vote on the matter according to Vice. Employees voted 618 to 380 against unionizing at the warehouse according to the National Labor Relations Board which counted the votes. Overall, 61% of those eligible to vote turned out.
Speaking about the result, Seth Goldstein, a labor attorney who represents the Amazon Labor Union, said:
“I’m not surprised at this result with all the union busting that went on at LDJ5. We will certainly contest the election. They violated laboratory conditions in this election with mandatory anti-union meetings and we've already got a whole series of charges against them.”
The decision not to unionize at LDJ5 comes after the e-commerce giant ramped up its anti-union campaign after workers at the JFK8 warehouse voted to unionize making it the first warehouse in the country to do so. As more warehouses unionize, it increases employees’ ability to demand higher pay from Amazon as they could stage a more powerful strike. While they could still strike with the gains they’ve made so far, they won’t have as much of an impact.
Last month, union advocates were distributing union literature and putting up banners. Fighting back, Amazon attempted to discipline organizers, made workers remove union banners, and banned the union literature from the break room. The company even went as far as to shut down production to hold “mandatory anti-union meetings”, according to another Vice report.
While Amazon will be pleased with the result at LDJ5, it’s not sitting content with what has happened at JFK8 and is actively seeking to have the result there overturned as it claims that the union intimidated people into voting to unionize.
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